Nicholas Peter Collingwood Maughan (born January 1980) is a British investor and philanthropist.^[1]

Maughan founded the Nick Maughan Foundation at the start of the pandemic in 2020 to further a range of philanthropic initiatives in education, the environment and civic support schemes for disenfranchised communities.^[1][2][3] Maughan is the founder of BoxWise, the U.K.’s largest boxing focused youth work charity;^[4] a trustee of Tusk,^[5] an African wildlife conservation charity and of Dallaglio RugbyWorks,^[1] a charity that helps young people who have been excluded from mainstream education. Maughan is also the patron of StreetDoctors^[1] and patron of medical research charity, Womb Transplant U.K.^[6]and of the African development charity Spotlight on Africa.^[7]

Maughan is the founder of the ESG investment company Maughan Capital.^[8]

Biography

Maughan was born in January 1980 in London, England. He gained a degree in religion and theology at Manchester University, before graduating with a master’s degree in investment management from Cass Business School (now Bayes Business School).^[9]

Career

Maughan started his career in 2003 as a quantitative analyst at Tamiso & Co in New York City.

In 2020, he founded Maughan Capital to target investments into companies that bring social and environmental impact.^[10] Portfolio companies include Forests For Mines Ltd, which converts old coal mines into newly planted forests, and start-up carbon credit trading exchange Climate Solutions Exchange (CSX),^[11][12] of which he is also a director. Other portfolio companies include Beobia Ltd, trading as The Bug Factory, an English start-up that recycles refrigerators and freezers into hardware for the growth of mealworm. Mealworm is used as an alternative source of sustainable animal protein with a low-carbon footprint that, unlike soy, does not require the clearing of rainforests for its production.^[13]

Maughan is also known for his expertise and investments in a range of artificial intelligence companies^[14] including Sen which live streams video footage of earth from space, augmented with AI and machine learning^[15] with particular applications for wildlife conservation and environmental monitoring. Maughan Capital has also invested in two fundraising rounds for Infogrid, an AI company that dramatically reduces building emissions by improving their efficiency.^[16]

Philanthropy

Maughan established The Nick Maughan Foundation in 2020 as a privately funded philanthropic initiative centred around the three pillars of education, environment, and community.^[17] NMF’s advisory board includes Lord St. John of Bletso, Edward King of the European Climate Foundation, Nomatemba Tambo (daughter of Oliver Tambo), Bim Afolami and Michael Farrant of Farrant Group.^[18] NMF launched its flagship initiative BoxWise in 2020, founded by Maughan and Rick Ogden.^[19] BoxWise offers a 10-week boxing programme for young people.^[20][19]

Maughan is a trustee of Tusk Trust^[21] and of Dallaglio RugbyWorks,^[22] a charity founded by former England Rugby captain Lawrence Dallaglio, to help young people excluded from mainstream education to achieve better life outcomes.  

Maugan is also the patron of StreetDoctors, a grassroots charity that puts the youth at the centre of emergency first-aid provision. StreetDoctors has trained over 25,000 young people in first aid, targeting those individuals most likely to witness street crime.^[23]

Maughan has funded the Glasgow based Charlie Miller Football Academy.^[24][25] and is a major donor to the youth support charity Berkshire Youth Trust, through which he has contributed to the Trust’s reconstruction of the Waterside Centre in Newbury.^[26] Maughan has worked on the Fair Shot campaign with the Refugee Council and the inquiry into supporting young people at risk of crime through sport with the Centre for Social Justice.^[27] He has contributed to the development of social infrastructure projects in Eastern Uganda.^[28] These include the largest maternity hospital in the region, the Nick Maughan Maternity Centre, the NMF Riverside School^[29] and the NMF IT Centre.

Maughan also funds academically gifted children from low-income families to attend elite private schools in London, including Putney High,^[30] and provides scholarships to cover the fees for exceptional students from disadvantaged backgrounds to study various masters degrees including at his alma mater, Bayes Business School as well as medical research PhDs.^[31]

Maughan has donated to African conservation initiatives, including a £1m donation to Tusk Trust, of which Maughan is a trustee.^[32][33] He also matched all donations up to £150,000 made to Tusk through The Times newspaper’s Annual Christmas Appeal.^[1] Maughan sponsors the annual Tusk Wildlife Ranger Award, presented by the charity’s royal patron William, Prince of Wales, which recognises an individual working in the field to protect Africa’s wildlife^[34] as well as the Tusk Conservation Symposium.^[35]

References